A request is next sent to Sihon, King of the Amorites, couched in terms almost

identical with those used for Edom. The request is refused, Sihon comes out and fights

against Israel; and Israel smites him with the edge of the sword, and takes possession

of his territory.  What Israel took from Sihon had originally belonged to Moab

(Numb. 21: 26), who had become idolatrous, as we see from Numb. 21: 28, 29: "The

lords (baalim) of the high places of Arnon . . . . . O people of Chemosh" (Chemosh being

an idol, II Kings 23: 13).

This was a legitimate conquest on this side of Jordan before the land of promise was

reached; and the Church to-day, while not forgetting the restrictions associated with

Moab and Edom, can win back territory which was lost to Satan and his hosts, which

once belonged to the outer circle of God's people.

Og, King of Bashan, also went out against Israel, and he, too, was overcome and

destroyed. This king was the last of the Rephaim; his bedstead (or tomb) was nine cubits

long, "after the cubit of a man".

The destruction of Sihon and Og is commemorated in a psalm of praise, which

specially emphasizes the mercy of God.

This seed of the giants, the Rephaim, were the tares sown by the Wicked One; it was

mercy utterly to destroy them. And so, when the day arrives for the Church to ascend

into the heavenly inheritance, the principalities and powers, the world holders of this

darkness and the "spiritual wickednesses" that have, under the authority of Satan, for so

long barred the way, shall in like manner be destroyed. Already by the cross they have

been "spoiled" and "triumphed over" (Col. 2: 15). For the present time our orders are to

"stand", to "stand against" and to "withstand".

If it was vital that Israel should follow out implicitly the instructions given them in

their passage from the wilderness to the promised land, it is surely equally important that

we also should neither exceed nor fall short of the instructions given for our own

guidance. The teaching that some hold regarding "warfare" to-day, is as though Israel,

long before the arrival at Kadesh, marched forward indiscriminately with sword in hand,

simply because they knew that over the Jordan lay their inheritance and that even then

they were really "more than conquerors".

We have touched, in passing, upon each of the opposing forces met by Israel, but so

much is involved in the action of Balak and Balaam that this must be reserved for

separate study in a subsequent paper.